The Henderson Family.
The Social Level of a Group Determined by the Clinical Field Service. :Author: G. G. Ide, Ph.D.,
Social Service Department, Psychological Clinic, U. of P. The Henderson family live in New Jersey on a three-acre place two and one-half miles from a thriving town. The house is quite picturesque from the road, as it is surrounded by a hedge some ten feet in height. The house is roofed in red tiles and protected by trees. The only means of entrance to the yard is through a hole in the hedge, through which the chance visitor creeps with some loss of dignity and considerable wearing of temper. The house is faced on two sides with a broad porch, the floor of which lacks many boards and offers but poor means to escape from the dirt path. The door which opens from the porch lurches drunkedly on one hinge, the upper half entirely missing, and the room into which it opens looks as if it might also have been sharing in the orgy, if the testimony of broken and discarded furniture may be taken as evidence. Toward the rear, guarded by a gaunt yellow cur, not too unfriendly, the back door offered hospitality. The space around the door is bare of green owing to too frequent deluges of dirty water, but the kitchen, lighted only by the open spaces in a diamond-shaped window frame, did not offer any reason for the assumption that water was frequently seen there. Dishes half-washed and left in greasy dishwater, crusts of stale bread and other foods on the table, floor and stove, and dirt brought in from many feet accumulating on the floor, and objectionable odors on every side were the tangible evidences of a human dwelling. A garage, with the customary openings of broken boards, faced the road, while within stood a dilapidated Ford. In the back seat of this car, safely tucked in and ready for flight, sat Mother Henderson, Daughter Ru and the baby son. Lest they be forgotten on a contemplated trip, they were eating their lunch in the car, the lunch consisting of very unpalatable looking chunks of bread and pickled fish, the two-year-old son indulging like the rest.
The daughter, Ru, a pink-cheeked, good-looking child of twelve is the only girl with whom Mother Henderson has had “any luck.” In fact, she is one of five reared thus far, while five other children lie on the hill just above the house, victims of “summer complaint,” to which it seems likely the last little son will likewise prove a victim. The eldest son of the family is fifteen years old, heavy and husky. He finished the sixth grade in a country school and is now working in a garage as errand boy. Two other sons, ten and eight respectively, are in the first grade in a consolidated school. Neither will pass this term into the second grade, for they are absent a great deal, and the younger does not seem strong enough to cope with the problems he is meeting in school. The older boy is stolid and healthy, able to hold his own in the world, if not in school. The girl, Ru, has never been entered in school, because she did not learn to talk until she was eight years old, and now, at twelve,has a vocabulary which does not exceed one hundred words and an infantile stammer as an added handicap.
Ruth was brought to the Psychological Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, at the behest of relatives. Her characteristic attitude while there was an up-raised arm in an attitude of defense and a loud whining “Let’s go.” She stamped her foot and demanded of her mother protection, which latter did not move the mother to come to her aid. Ru refused to “play” with the examiner most of the time. Her face was usually drawn into a troubled frown, but on command she would smile for a moment. The simplest mechanical test was beyond her power. Her memory span was three, with echolalia on the final word or syllable for which she was asked. Questioning the mother did not bring out much information, as the mother was too much in doubt herself to answer questions intelligently. For instance, she could not give her home address or directions how to get there. She did not know her children’s school records, and her statements in regard to her children’s history were very, vague. The father a shipyard worker on occasions, was certain that Ru remained about the same, neither excited or melancholic, at intervals. He thought her attitude of defense brought about by a great deal of teasing on the part of her brothers and cousins living nearby. She ought to go to school, he admitted, but he would not want her to leave home.
Mr. Henderson is an easy-going sort of man, little worried by the conditions which he faces at home. He thought his strawberry bed needed fixing up this year, and did fix it up?by plowing a furrow between the rows. He planted a small garden, principally with onions, and left the rest of his three-acre plot to grow up to weeds. His car has lost several floor boards and sundry bolts and straps, but these, together with a leaky and very much patched tire, did not move him to use some of his leisure time to their mending. The conditions in the house are seldom equaled in a city slum, and the general response of the mother, if her success as a homemaker and mother are used as a standard, are those of the feebleminded type. Her tiny son, long past two, does not walk or talk, and shows no inclination to do so. The next son is very dull and in poor health. Two years in school have failed to teach him anything of first grade work. The next son is very dull and slow, and mentally deficient in the sense of not being able to do well in school work, but his reactions among the other children are normal for his years. Ru is unquestionably feebleminded and of low grade. The family is not a hopeful one from the standpoint of their probable value as a social unit. Ru will soon be of an age where she will be a menace to society, and the feebleminded mother is not strong enough to be of value as a disciplinary agent. The father is not at home when he can be a member of some jolly party in town, and if there, would not understand the problems to be solved. The conditions in the home are not favorable to the physical development of the two younger children. The entire family are not at the present time, or likely to be in the future, productive members of the community.
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